Will there be a battle between the late Negros Occidental Rep. Ignacio "Iggy" Arroyo's legal wife and the woman who was his partner?

An ABS-CBNNews.com report published on January 27, 2012 reported that the recently deceased lawmaker's legal wife, Alicia Arroyo, may sue his longtime partner Grace Ibuna, for "allegedly giving the go-signal to pull the plug" on him. The congressman had died in a London hospital on January 26. He had suffered a cardiac arrest and was pronounced "clinically dead." He was hooked to a life support system for a few hours.

Alicia is accusing Grace of claiming that she was Iggy's "legal wife" so she could make the decision to pull the plug or not. According to the report, "Alicia said she would never have pulled the plug on Iggy."

The report quoted Alicia's lawyer, Atty. Lorna Kapunan, who said, "To misrepresent that you are the spouse, when in fact you are not, to misrepresent or to actually go ahead and pull the plug, these are all multiple criminal offenses."

ABS-CBNNews.com noted that Iggy's marriage to Alicia "was in the process of being annulled." However, Alicia said the anulment  "was never approved." She did add that Iggy "stopped going to their family home in La Vista, Quezon City in 2005."

Meanwhile, in another ABS-CBNNews.com report, it was revealed that Grace's family "refused to engage in a word war with Iggy’s legal wife." Ibuna's sister, Marilyn Ibuna-Bernardi, said, "People are grieving, let them grieve. All we are asking are prayers for Iggy, prayers for all the families."

In any case, the report revealed that both Alicia and Grace want to take charge of Iggy's funeral. The report quoted a member of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP), Atty. Trixie Angeles, who said "Grace should give way to the legal wife." She emphasized: "She (Alicia) is presumed to have all the rights of the spouse to take charge over the estate, over the remains."

The same report also revealed that Alicia is, in fact, Iggy's second wife. Iggy's marriage to his first wife, Marilen Jacinto, was annulled.

For more on this story, log on to ABS-CBNNews.com.